When looking for an accessible web solution, agencies should consult people in the disability community. Specifically, the National Federation of the Blind and other advocacy groups not only represent tens of thousands of disabled people, but organizations like the NFB commonly have specialists on staff who can point an agency in the right direction. In addition, because federal purchasing power spurs the development ...more »
We have a boatload of govt info on govt websites. How often do you review it to make sure it's still current and accurate? How do you know it's still current and accurate? When I was at HUD, we started a quarterly certification program. In a nutshell, the Deputy Secretary required every principal staff member (asst secys) to certify - in writing - that all the content for which his/her organization was responsible ...more »
Many federal websites that I work on could be further improved if we were able to survey / talk to / usability test with actual users. There are too many rules in place that prohibit us from reaching out to the people who the site is actually designed for.
The Metro, here in Portland, Oregon uses something called "OptIn" to get opinions from the citizens on all sorts of things. I find it invigorating to know that I am finally being listened to by my government.
Ask ordinary people, non-expert in the subject of the site, to see if they can use the site.
Give the users the ability to flag a page for a broken link, missing content, outdated or incorrect content. This would actually help government keep their web pages updated instead of relying on link-checkers. These flags for outdated or incorrect content could be a metric that agencies use to measure quality. Additionally it could help agencies implement this Executive Order--Streamlining Service Delivery and Improving ...more »
When content is posted, users should be able to vote and comment on that content - similar to how things work on Idea Scale. This would allow content creators a quick way of evaluating and refining their material.